Tuesday, August 7, 2007

The Big Idea

So I've started watching a great show on CNBC that I think everyone should watch at least once if you've ever had a great idea to market something or make something and sell it, but you just didn't know how to go about doing it. If anything, I think it will inspire you to try something that you've always wanted to do, whether that means sky diving or starting your own business.

The show is called "The Big Idea" and it's hosted by Donny Deutsch, of the famed ad agency Deutsch. While the Deutsch ad agency has large clients like IKEA and Johnson & Johnson, the guests on Donny Deutsch's show are regular folk that just happen to have great ideas- big ideas. These individuals started small with one really good idea and now have extremely successful businesses.

A couple of my favorite success stories:

Laloo's Goat Milk Ice Cream
TOMS Shoes
Cereality

While Deutsch tends to place an emphasis on the millions of dollars that each guest has made at the beginning of each episode, it's not really the financial aspect of the show that I'm interested in (although I'm not going to deny the fact that they're financially secure is a bad thing!). These are people that took a risk, went out on a limb, worked hard and were handsomely rewarded. For me, I think the show is aspirational and I can relate to some of the things that these people have gone through and it helps me anticipate what's ahead. But even if you're not planning on running your own business, the show fun is to watch- you get to learn about lots of new, interesting products and hear the stories behind them.

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